Says Prof. Jacobson, who's now gone independent.
As you may remember, I'm going independent too, and if you want to know why it hasn't happened yet, it's what Jacobson is talking about. And my blog archive is really large large — 24,371 posts and nearly 1 million comments. You can't just push the "export" button and extract your archive. Not yet, anyway.
So if you are wondering when the big move is going to happen and how Jacobson got out ahead of me, that's the issue. The archive, including the comments, needs to move with me, and it's a big move, requiring more than even the special help Jacobson is talking about.
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Millionth!!!!
I don't understand offhand why a million comments or a hundred coments makes a difference, unless somebody's program doesn't scale properly.
The machine does the work.
I hope it's not a blogger problem, which would mean it can't be fixed, ie the export archive isn't right.
I don't understand why moving a million comments should be that hard. Are they using a wheelbarrow?
It has something to do with rss feed. Something to do with the length of the connection time their server permits.
Does that help?
Stuff happens. A long conversion, then a transient system error, the export operation is aborted..I had a problem with Wordpress, got all posts but no comments. Oh, you wanted those too? lol. Then another time I lost posts, too. But that was just my two years of blogging and photos. Nothing important.
Don't do it Ann.
I dunno, Ann.
Seems to me Jacobson's just moving from one small house to another.
While you've got a big place, here. Blogger's not gonna screw you, again. Maybe, it's not worth the work of hauling your stuff?
You know, in the old days, when real estate sold real easy ... it was said that Americans were moving every seven years. Some even more often than that.
Move a lot. And, you're living with unpacked boxes.
Stay put? And, everybody knows your address.
"Whatever problems Blogger had or has, it’s a great place to start."
Agreed. Blogger was great, until it wasn't. Now the seams are showing, BIG TIME, and it get to be too much.
TMR is now here, but I haven't moved the old site yet because, since there's just me, it's too much of a hassle.
The professor's new site looks great - love the logo.
"I have a lot more comments than Jacobson! HaHa!"
It it a blogger timeout or a new place timeout?
In any case lots of little conversations is better than one big one.
Something called wget could probably be scripted to fetch everything, but you'd think they'd have done the equivalent already.
As Roger Miller sang.. "you've been a long time leavin' but you'll be a long time gone"
It's a Blogger timeout, and for some reason (as I understand it) the time kept shortening, to the point where it would take a year (!) to get all the comments out.
And a special script was written, but in the end, it wasn't enough. We need manual help at the Blogger end, and we're going to get it. So there's that.
I can imagine. I moved from blogspot after 2 years of very small-time blogging and I never got everything satisfactorily moved. THEN I had a moveabletype database fail and lost it all. I decided I had better things to do with my time and better things to spend money on than saving my own ephemera :)
OK. So, they're using a digital wheelbarrow.
When you use settings and export your blog to the HD, does it finish properly?
If so, can't they use that file? Or does not not represent the blog properly. Maybe leaves out comments.
I haven't looked at that particular file for my blog and so don't know.
I wonder what Blogger takes away from all this. Do they regret causing their best 'customers' to quit because of such a major gaffe by an employee who is supposed to be there to help?
Do they want to retain important bloggers who inspire others? I'm not saying that to denigrate smaller blogs - it's just treating a big blog badly doesn't give the rest of us any hope, despite their assertion that they view us all as equal... err, well, maybe BECAUSE they say they view us all as equal... if they could treat you this way, what happens to us?
Losing you and Jacobsen, and a number of others is not a good thing.
It's too bad because they've got a lot going for them. Their new template designer is a lot of fun, and for the most part everything is seamless.
The glitch they ran into was just a glitch - it was nitecruzr's ridiculous decision to make it something it wasn't that caused all this.
Have they apologized?
Better to have it done right than to lose something that you would really want to keep with you.
Sometimes, you move into a new house. And, find that the roof leaks. With just as many problems as you had in the "old house."
By the way, why does everything have to be packed and carted? Isn't every day a new day on the Internet?
The old stuff, in newspaper jargon, was called a morgue.
It's just data, Ann. Even a million comments wouldn't be that much text, datawise.
Sounds like they're just being assholes.
*shrug*
I still think the biggest advantage will be links that automatically form when you post a web address. (Is 'automatically' the correct word?)
Ann is getting special Google help to export her archives. Top men are on this. Top men.
Blogger treats everybody equally in terms of deleting blogs for technical reasons, like trouble repairing a glitch; Althouse got better than usual treatment in restoring when usual channels don't go well.
I don't know the blogger business model - whether big blogs help or hurt - but helping customers trying to switch to other providers is always a good idea. They'll remember that especially.
Everything technical takes four times longer that you think it will. It's a geek law of some sort.
Make That Move - Shalamar.
BTW in an all out Althouse commenter dog fight my money is on rh.
Sorry Trooper but you a Yankee fan.. I have to count that against you ;)
I'm going to try to post to Flickr some pet pics later tonight.
Right now I'm going back and forth btwg here and the pool in the backyard.
WV - smsmsor
well at least leave the old site up and link it. I think you can do that even after exporting.
wv: spingate.
I blogged this last night, and linked both you and William!
I'm pretty sure I published the first shout out for the new LI.
Looking forward to seeing YOURS go live!
"When you use settings and export your blog to the HD, does it finish properly?"
No.
It's just data, Ann. Even a million comments wouldn't be that much text, datawise
I wonder if everyone's avatar, replicated again and again, is a cause the big dump.
I think Blogger is designed for smaller blogs. I would like to have known in advance that there is an upper limit to what really works here. I have noticed for a couple years that I can't use the search function on the "manage posts" page to get back all the way into the archive. That's been a serious limitation for me. But I should have also seen it as a signal that things were maxing out.
The 4GB (or 2GB) limit is one obvious place for things to fail, with a 32 bit integer going back to zero or from positive to negative respectively, unless everybody's coded for 64 bit things, which legacy code probably has not.
Interesting...
I read this post on his blog this morning.
If I recall correctly, he had a paragraph inwhich he listed other lawblogs in a flattering fashion-
"Althouse,Insty,Volokh,...."...one or two more that escape me.
I was going to say that Althou.se should email him to thank him for metioning her first..
However, I just went there to retrieve the exact quote...now, I don't see it.
I'm confused.
"I wonder if everyone's avatar, replicated again and again, is a cause the big dump."
No. Every occurrence in the comments thread of someone's avatar image is just a link to a single tiny JPEG file stored on Google's servers.
Blogger was great, until Google bought it and turned into a political weapon to silence conservatives.
Same thing their doing with AdWords giving Barack Obama's campaign special insider access to "alpha features" that they won't let Republican candidates access.
Google is a threat to our American democracy and Republicans had better break this evil company up. They're now trying to influence elections in immoral and illegal ways and we can't allow that to continue.
Really can't wait until you're fully moved, Ann.
Google sucks.
No. Every occurrence in the comments thread of someone's avatar image is just a link to a single tiny JPEG file stored on Google's servers.
If you go back to a post a couple of years ago, the avatars that appear are the ones in use at that time. So that make things more complicated. All past avatars would have to be saved and coded to a user and a date range. I'm skeptical they'd do that instead of just the brute force approach of pasting avatars on each post.
@nevadabob Could you be a more obvious moby? You're just wasting space now.
Ever since your kerfuffle with Blogger, this site has never been easier to use.
Gone are the days a comment gets swallowed. It's like following a blown tire on a car, you replaced your tires. And, the vehicle performs like a dream.
Yeah. I know you got angry. Made worse when you found out "Althouse" wasn't able to travel along with you. Though it really is yours. Only because someone "squatted" on your name.
Forcing you into a new "logo." Which reminds me of the New Coke.
People didn't want the new coke. They wanted the old coke. So, the company, full of MBA's, decided it was well worth keeping a "classic."
I'm still new that this (less than 2k posts) so I'll stick for a while. Once, if ever, my blog begins to pay for itself, then, I'll move.
Please keep us posted on your move.
Rich Vail
Pikesville, Maryland
The Vail Spot
Google forced to deny special ad deal for Obama campaign despite spokesman's admission.
FoxNews: The sales rep did little to extinguish his notion, writing back to the NRSC claiming "select" clients had already signed up. "This is a pre-alpha product that is being released to a select few clients. I'd be happy to get you into the beta if you're interested," Google's Sirene Abou-Chakra wrote, according to an email sent to the NRSC and obtained by FoxNews.com. Abou-Chakra pegged the entry-level "commitment" for the program at $10,000-$15,000. The response raised a "red flag" at the NRSC, according to a spokesman, considering Google's ties to Obama."
No. Every occurrence in the comments thread of someone's avatar image is just a link to a single tiny JPEG file stored on Google's servers.
Not too dissimilar to iTunes 'artwork' file.
"...helping customers trying to switch to other providers is always a good idea."
I felt compelled to repeat.
And now you will go in search of the author...or not.
Rh! Congrats!
You, sir, are the author whose mind set we want to follow for now.
So tell us all precisely why Blogger should help Althouse leave Blogger for a competitor, and do so, not only seamlessly, but with extra updraft to her ass?
I bet it's all about her tits. And her good breeding, of course.
Ha ha
So if I said, "Feminist my ass!"
Hooo boy!
Whoa!!!!!
That's SOME friggin' dildo!
Ann what you have done here and what you still do every day is amazing in its quantity as well as its quality. To consistently accomplish both is nothing short of awe inducing.
Althouse is not the only blog I follow and comment on, but it could be. If I could only have one, this would be it. For one blogger to produce such breadth while still providing depth and nuance daily is incredibly rare.
Although I'm sure it is far from it, you make it look effortless. It must at times get to be a drag, but it always looks like it's a joy for you - a labor of love.
Undoubtably, there are many times when you do it just for us and to fulfill your self imposed duty and standard. I for one would never begrudge you slacking off a little. I've already gotten more than I could ever ask
I'm, impressed, amazed, grateful and envious. I know I could never do it even half as well, and I know other bloggers who foolishly criticize you not only can't but know they can't.
I often disagree with you. Actually not that often, but you have either changed or improved my opinion and understanding on a number of issues.
All I can say is: Wow! and Thanks.
And I hope this bouquet arrives right in your wheelhouse.
I love to learn. You've taught me a lot. And you make me more curious than ever about things in our world that I never considered before.
"All I can say is: Wow! and Thanks."
Hey. Must agree, bagoh.
Althouse is like the best focker I know.
When I was a kid? We used to say..."Period! End of paragraph!"
lol
Hell, we got all TALL and BIG and BOLDER than we had any right to be.
And we never wrote a thing that might require a period, on the end of a sentence in a paragraph of a story that didn't end well.
What BLOGGER owns is the "Leave a comment" column to the right side of the page. Comments, when they adhere, go left.
Glenn Reynolds links to Professor Jacobson's new setup. And, it's missing this great set up!
Sure. It used to be fussy.
But after the kerfuffle this page has been running like a dream.
Hope you reconsider.
I know there's fear that come 2012 Google will hit some sort of button, and send all conservatives flying. But to do that, they'd have to be stupid enough to have hired all the jerks who went to New Coke.
Customers speaking up, make all the difference in the corporate world.
There's no advantages to Google messing with the public. Who can always go elsewhere.
You can measure Google's success by its stock price. Ain't no fool with a Google job who is gonna fool with that! No programmer, either.
Please keep what's free.
"they'd have to be stupid enough to have hired all the jerks who went to New Coke. "
They overwhelmingly fell for, voted for and contributed to Obama; so they are quite capable of doing something stupid and self destructive.
Well, Althouse, that was a hell of a "start."
Legal Insurrection is a great blog.
The professor is happy to return/respond to emails and has a nice following of folks focused on the dangers of big government.
And no weirdos that lurk and bring up subjects that would be best suited for peep shows.
"Wow! and Thanks"
Amen.
It seems like it's taking an awful long time.
But it's not like the blog here isn't perfectly fine in the interim.
You made the right decision, Althouse, to go and to try to go with a complete move. Good luck with that.
Blogger is antiquated.
And Google refuses to put any money into upgrading it for this century.
FTC launches investigation of Google for anti-trust violations.
WSJ: "The Federal Trade Commission is poised to serve Google Inc. with civil subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling the start of a wide-ranging, formal investigation into whether the Internet-search giant has abused its dominance on the Web."
What were you saying about being a moby, Ann?
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